"Papa used to look at the ceiling whenever Mama brought home those bright plastic flowers."
That's how Kashvi Lingamneni (Singapore) opened her winning micro-story for our annual Flash Fiction Competition. Guest-judged by poet and editor Dr. Taylor Byas, we challenged our community of teenage writers to complete an unthinkable task: Craft a story in under 100 words.
Check out Dr. Taylor Byas' commentary on her chosen winners below, plus stay tuned for the behind-the-scenes Q&A interview with the winners...
“Daddy’s Girl,” by Kashvi Lingamneni (Singapore)
I made an audible sound when I read the sentence "They only see each other." What a devastating transference of understanding. The girl who used to laugh at her mother becomes the mother being laughed at and made invisible. There is a complexity of emotion as well. The tenderness the young girl has for her father in their shared laughter persists in the image of the shiny silver pen that she polishes as an adult woman. And yet we also understand that her tenderness towards her own husband is likely changing shape as she is made an outsider. What does it mean when we finally understand our parents? This piece is a sharp portrait of the cost of that understanding.
“Encaged,” by Jojo11 (US)
There's a real art to the slow reveal of this piece. The environment is ominous, terrifying even, and there are ways that this piece speaks to a current horrific reality of industrial animal testing and confinement — the numbered ear tag, the "silver lattice" standing in for a cage, the masked figures who dispense food like technicians rather than caretakers. The closing line, where the masked man scratches the narrator's ear, is effective because it resists sentimentality; it's framed as a deviation in routine rather than an act of kindness, and the narrator's surprise says more about the baseline of this world than any direct statement could.
The Allegorical Sailor’s (US) review of “Pomegranate Juice”
The peer reviewer here has a brilliant editorial eye and knows that something as small as a word or phrase can be the difference between clarity and confusion. I'm particularly taken with their comments on the relationship between the speaker and the devils on their shoulders, and how adjusting a word or two could really clue the reader in to the speaker's internal compass. Are they feeling guilt? Is the speaker feeling detached from the acts that they've committed? Are they just now beginning to see the "pomegranate juice" as its real and horrifying truth? These are the kinds of observations a really sharp editor makes, which they clearly are!
“The Shadow I Sacrificed,” by FelineFire2010 (US)
“falling is flying and thrilling is crying,” by mtt (Denmark)
“Spider,” by Villy (Denmark)
“The First Poem I learned was a Eulogy,” by MyaB (US)
“Ama’s Thoughts,” by Ama T (Nigeria)
“The plate of Chicken Biryani,” by add_em (India)
“The Heels Are Mine,” by AnnDeSaint (US)
“A woman with dreams.,” by Maia H (El Salvador)
“The Fledgeling,” by Lilainee (Guam)
“Cornwall Parking Lot,” by AryXx (UK)
“A Summer Night Raw Script,” by Sahana (US)
Cantabile’s (Australia) review of “Neonatal Departure”